Truck bodies mountable on trucks are known in the art. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,722,352; 4,789,195; 5,267,773; and 5,368,357, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Unfortunately, many conventional truck bodies which are attachable to trucks suffer from at least the following problems. First, most truck bodies are effectively one piece bodies having a fixed size with a given number of compartments for housing tools or the like. There are many differently sized trucks, having different lengths. In view of these variable truck sizes, truck bodies of fixed size are undesirable in that they require marketers and/or sellers of such bodies to maintain in stock many differently sized truck bodies for sale to potential truck owners. For example, a dealer/seller of such bodies may have "in stock" a number of eight foot truck bodies, a number of nine foot bodies, and also a number of eleven foot bodies, due to the variable needs of potential truck owners/body buyers.
Second, most conventional truck bodies have a given number of compartments adapted to house tools, materials, or the like. The size and number of compartments in the body are not variable in a practical sense. Different truck owners have different needs, with some owners requiring a given amount of space for tool storage or the like, and other owners requiring less or more space. Truck bodies having a fixed number of compartments (or storage space) are thus undesirable in this regard.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,126,349 and 5,421,645 disclose modular truck bodies, and are hereby incorporated herein by reference. The '349 and '645 patents, however, are undesirable in that the bodies and compartments thereof are inefficiently mounted on the truck. The '349 patent, for example, includes a plurality of different storage modules/cabinets that are attachable to the truck. Horizontally oriented joists, which are part of a frame, are provided for supporting the plastic modules/cabinets. Cantilever end portions of the horizontal joists provide support for the upright end walls of the modules/cabinets. The horizontal joists extend through recesses in sidewalls of the modules/cabinets in order to support same. This is an inefficient way to mount such modules/cabinets on the truck. As a result, this method of attachment further requires metal straps or bars to properly/securely attach the modules/cabinets to the frame. Still further required in the '349 patent are bolts extending between adjacent module end walls to fixedly connect immediately adjacent modules to one another, which in effect causes the entire body to behave during use as a single truck body unit. This rigid connection between adjacent modules also makes it difficult and burdensome for a truck owner to easily remove a single module and, for example, replace it with another.
Single unit truck bodies, and those which perform in effect as single unit bodies during truck operation as in the '349 patent, are undesirable in that they are subject to a high amount of stress in that the body is not, in and of itself, sufficiently flexible. This lack of flexibility during truck operation (e.g. during off road driving) may tend to cause cracking or failure of the body in certain instances. Additionally, such one-piece bodies are often tough on the frame or body of the underlying truck. This reduces the life expectancy of the truck body as well as potentially parts of the underlying truck.
It is apparent from the above that there exists a need in the art for a truck body system which: (i) is modular in nature in that a plurality of different individual modules/compartments may be separately attached/removed without affecting other modules; (ii) is efficiently connectable to the underlying truck via a subframe system to enable simple attachment and removal of individual compartment modules; and (iii) is sufficiently flexible during off-road truck driving and the like so as to reduce stress relative to one-piece bodies.
It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill the above described needs in the art.